Pisanosaurus

Pisanosaurus
Temporal range: Late Triassic
~229 Ma
Reconstruction of the skull, white bones are known, light grey bones were known from heavily eroded impressions
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Ornithischia (?)
Genus: Pisanosaurus
Casamiquela, 1967
Species:
P. mertii
Binomial name
Pisanosaurus mertii
Casamiquela, 1967

Pisanosaurus (/pɪsænəˈsɔːrəs/) is an extinct genus of early dinosauriform, likely an ornithischian or silesaurid, from the Late Triassic of Argentina. It was a small, lightly built, ground-dwelling herbivore, that could grow up to an estimated 1 m (3.3 ft) long. Only one species, the type, Pisanosaurus mertii, is known, based on a single partial skeleton discovered in the Ischigualasto Formation of the Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin in northwestern Argentina. This part of the formation has been dated to the late Carnian, approximately 229 million years ago.[1]

  1. ^ Desojo, Julia B.; Fiorelli, Lucas E.; Ezcurra, Martín D.; Martinelli, Agustín G.; Ramezani, Jahandar; Da Rosa, Átila A. S.; von Baczko, M. Belén; Trotteyn, M. Jimena; Montefeltro, Felipe C.; Ezpeleta, Miguel; Langer, Max C. (2020-07-29). "The Late Triassic Ischigualasto Formation at Cerro Las Lajas (La Rioja, Argentina): fossil tetrapods, high-resolution chronostratigraphy, and faunal correlations". Scientific Reports. 10 (1): 12782. Bibcode:2020NatSR..1012782D. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-67854-1. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 7391656. PMID 32728077.